Friday, April 3, 1998Last modified at 1:03 a.m. on Friday, April 3, 1998

'Camouflage Bandit' remains jailed

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - For months, Mike Witoszynski would get out of bed, dress impeccably and go through the routine of going to work. Friends and family had no idea he had lost his job as a medical supplies salesman.

The facade didn't pay the bills. So some days, state and federal prosecutors say, Witoszynski traded his suits for a camouflage mask and hunter's garb and robbed seven banks at gunpoint.

They call the 46-year-old man the "Camouflage Bandit," and say he was a crook even before the robberies began.

His friends, however, describe him as a generous, ethical man who volunteered his time and perhaps resorted to robbery only to provide for his wife of 24 years and three children.

Twenty supporters have flooded an Oakland County judge with letters, urging her to lower Witoszynski's $500,000 bond.

"The unfortunate part of this scenario is that Mike's crime is truly one (of which) many of us are guilty, and that is not knowing how to ask for help," wrote J. Cathleen Dusseau.

Richard Filoramo, head of a Detroit-area soccer club where Witoszynski served as a longtime volunteer and coach, wrote: "I know I am not alone when I say that the Mike Witoszynski (jailed) is not the Mike we all know and love. Mike is a very fine person who deserves any break he can get."

Witoszynski faces federal bank robbery and weapons charges for six heists last fall that netted $38,407, and state charges for the final robbery in December. Authorities believe he used some of the take to pay bills, some to gamble in the hopes of winning a bigger cushion.

He also is charged with defrauding the state of $7,800 in unemployment benefits from July 1996 to January 1997, while he still held his $31,000-a-year sales job. He lost the job in July.

As lawyers argued Wednesday whether Witoszynski should be freed, supporters listened while wearing white ribbons. But on Thursday, the judge rejected their wishes and ordered that the $500,000 bond stand.